Coal in the Diamonds
by Zulu the Vampire Slayer
Summary: The year is 1830.  A group of explorers go off to search a new land.  When the natives fight back, it seems that the explorers have the upper hand.  But the natives have a surprise, one that no one would ever suspect...


_Do Pokémon think?_

That train of thought made a quick stop at my station as I sat on the bow of the ship, staring out at the waving fields of blue that seemed to end only at the beginning of the sky. Wind pelted my face in spurts, blowing charcoal tufts of hair out of my eyes. My Vulpix cuddled into my thighs as I adjusted my sitting position to accommodate the Oriental fire fox. I had been doing this a lot; not like there was much else to do as a passenger aboard this ship.

My question was seemingly answered about twelve seconds when Vulpix hopped out of my lap and zoomed off towards somewhere else on the boat, presumably wherever it would be hardest to find her and most likely to get me in trouble. Once I regained my balance, I hurriedly leaped to my feet and headed off in the same direction as my troublesome Pokémon.

"Amaterasu!" I shouted towards the cabins. I wasn't sure where the name had come from or what it meant, but according to Pa, she'd gotten the name somewhere along the trail from the Orient and refused to respond to anything else. "Ama, come back!"

A flash of brown fur revealed my disobedient Pokémon zooming off towards the captain's quarters. I figured I would be too late, but I ran anyway. Twenty feet, ten feet, five feet- I might've been able to stop her…

…before three hundred pounds of solid abdominals propelled me into the deck and launched me towards the railing. I glanced up instinctively, but I didn't need to do that to know exactly who I had just run into. An ugly, scarred face presented itself to me as my spirit plummeted to an all-new level of lowness. If there was anyone I would rather not run into while chasing a Pokémon, it was Fenrir Guraena.

Fenrir was in charge of the Mightyena search and destroy pack, and those wolves were vicious. It was extremely evident this job had toughened him up; he was twice the size of a Tauros and just about as vicious. His arms made most tree trunks look like little flowers, and his legs could power a small town for a week. Being on his naughty list was a bad, _bad _place to be, and unfortunately I was gated on that list and the key had been swallowed by an angry Quagsire.

Fenrir gave me a look of utter disgust as he picked up Ama by the scruff and lifted her directly in front of his lizard of a face. "Does this belong to you, _gentleman?" _He spoke the last word as if he was describing a decaying carcass in the middle of his living room. "Do you noble folk let your Pokémon zoom around like children on a playground?" His words scraped down my ears like a rusty knife.

I tried my hardest not to punch him in the face, but instead looked up at him with the most placid look I could possibly summon in that tense of a situation. "She's young, Fenrir, and so am I," I said matter of factly, enjoying the wince he gave from hearing his first name. "You can't expect such a young trainer to keep perfect control of his extremely energetic Pokémon, outside of its homeland no less."

Fenrir drew back his snarl into a disgusting smirk that reminded me of the rings on a tree stump. "Normally, Adam"-he would never even think of calling me Mr. Mitchell, like pretty much everyone else did- "that excuse would work. But as we've been on this ship for four weeks, and your little fox has caused thirteen accidents, while Ms. Carlisle's Glameow has been perfectly we-"

A voice interrupted him from around the corner. "Ah, lay off 'im. 'E's just a boy with a feisty Pokémon, he can' 'elp it." I turned at the sound of the comforting Scottish accent and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Redbeard turned around the corner, a sticky grin emerging from the eponymous beard.

Redbeard was about the size of Fenrir, except with a heavy Scottish accent and a huge head of crimson hair that curled down to his chest in a thick beard. He wobbled over to us on his hickory peg leg and gave me a toothless smile. He creeped me out, but at least he was on my side.

Redbeard turned to Fenrir and lost his smile in the sea of red that was his beard. "Now listen here, Fenrir," he started. "I don' wan' you to cause this boy any trouble. 'is daddy be fundin' this 'xpedition, 'nd keepin' good terms wit' him is essential. And don't be comparin' him to Carlisle's girl. Two completely different worlds."

Fenrir's smug look degenerated into a snarl again as he dropped Ama to the ground. She scurried around behind my legs and shivered.

"I will compare this maggot to whoever I please, Mr. Redbeard," growled Fenrir. " We're in the middle of an important talk, so please leave."

Redbeard gave a wheezy laugh. "The only talkin' that'll be goin' on if I take me leave is the talkin' o' yer fists, Fenrir. No, it shoul' be Mitchell's boy who runs." I took heed of Redbeard's suggestion and zoomed off towards my cabin, Ama at my heels.

I slammed the door of my cabin shut before leaping onto my cot back first. Unlike almost everyone else on the boat, save a few other 'important' passengers, I got a room to myself. They called it 'a gift for the first-class passengers', I called it 'shmoozing up to my dad'. Granted, I thought he forced them into it with a musket, but that's a story for another time.

Ama cuddled up into my side, creating a nice warm spot right around my ribs. That was one of the advantages of a fire type without external fire: warmth without burning yourself. Granted, Fire-types were unbelievably hard to tame. I was lucky enough to get Ama.

I laid my head back against the pillow, Ama still curled into my side. _Eh, I guess I could use a nap._

And on that note, my vision faded to black and I entered the realm of dreams.

**A/N: This is my new story. I'm going to try and update in tandem with Streets (when I start updating Streets again).**

**Just a quick note: this takes place in kinda a bridge universe between Pokémon and Earth, where Pokémon are the normal animals, but the locations are all Earth.  
**


End file.
